Kitty!

So, Kitty has gotten really funny lately.  I think he was just sick our first week, so he mostly slept, but not he is a playing maniac.  It's hilarious to watch!  Instead of describing it, I'll just show you.  These video obviously doesn't catch his hilarity perfectly, but they're a good taste of it.  I still need to catch his pounce, then bounce away sideways move and how he bats the aluminum foil ball around the house like a champion soccer player, but for now, these will have to do.  Also, sorry for the bad video quality and the fact that usually the cat is kind of in the background.  I don't have a real video camera, so I'm using photo booth and I can't stick it right next to him or he gets nervous.

and:

file:///Users/Sheri/Pictures/Photo%20Booth/Movie%2013.mov


And, of course, some photos:

Also, we've come up with some name options, but none have stuck yet.  Here are some we've come up with:

Asparagus (Gus for short), Physysics (joke from the show "Psych," and pronounced Fiz-EYE-sicks),

 Mendelssohn (like, there's Felix the cat, and there's Felix Mendelssohn, the composer), Filbert (Philly for short, for obvious reasons), Dumbledore (though we'd rather not call him "Dumb" for short), Hugh, and some cool soccer player's name because he's so talented with batting the ball around.  Tom's nieces and nephews also came up with Catsford.  Thoughts, suggestions?

By the way, kitty is currently falling asleep right next to me as I type this.  All that backpack attacking tuckered him out.

Mice

So, a mouse showed up at our house (or maybe two, who knows?) and it's been the best thing to happen to me in a long time.  I feel bad for Tom, because mice are his second greatest fear and he's been about to pee himself ever since, but other than that it's been great for me.

First, the day the mouse appeared, I didn't have to walk home from school because he picked me up so we could go to Home Depot for rad eradication supplies.  This was a double bonus because it gave me an excuse to gawk at all the Christmas stuff which pretty much made my day.

Then, when we got home, I found that he had completely deep cleaned the house.  Yes!!!

The next day he offered me a 15 minute foot massage if I'd put rat poison in two one of our cupboards (he was too afraid).  I didn't even suggest the massage and would have been happy to do it, but hey I'll take it!

On top of that I got all kind of praise just for walking in the door first each time we came home.

All of these perks were definitely appreciated, but the biggest perk is that finally, after wanting one our whole marriage, we got a.......

KITTY!!!!

Now, we're only fostering him, but still!!  Isn't he adorable?  Yeah, he's about 6 or 7 weeks old and super precious.  We are taking him in so that he doesn't have to wait at the shelter for someone to adopt him.  He gets to wait at our house, instead.

He's super scared though.  When I took him home last night he ran away from me and hid behind the bookcase.  I figured it was best to leave him be and just put his water and food and everything over by him.  After a while he started to peek his head out, but as soon as I looked at him he'd pop it back in.  Then, with time he'd just leave it out and kind of fell asleep back there.  I was so proud of him when he finally got the guts to take a few steps out and eat some of his food.

Here he is peeking his little head out at us.

The real fun came though when we got in bed.  After we were there for a while, but before we were asleep he came all the way out and started wandering around!  I was afraid he'd be behind that bookcase for days.  He gingerly went around the whole apartment (not saying much) and inspected all the fun stuff we have.  

At first we were highly enjoying his exploration, but this also coincided with a near constant stream of meows that only stopped for very brief moments.  It was a completely sleepless night, punctured with occasional poo cleanup since he wasn't onto the whole litter box thing yet.

The second day and night he got a little better about sleeping, litter boxing and letting us near him, but we were still pretty worried about how it would all work out.  The kitty really almost broke Tom and I had to face the thought of having to return him to the shelter if he didn't get better.  But...

Fast forward four more days and voila!  He's now a litter box champ, he doesn't make a peep at night and he and I are quickly becoming best (or second best) buds.  He likes to cuddle up next to me at night and he barely flinches now when I got to pet him.  He pounces on invisible mice and chases his tail.  He likes to climb on Tom's back and hide between Tom's sweaters.  He still isn't completely used to his new home yet, but MAN has he made progress!  I'm really loving our new friend and I'm so glad we waited out those first few miserable, sleepless, worry filled days.

Here are some more pictures!!!:

He's a very spiritual cat.